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Sunni Islam

Although originally political in nature, the
differences
between Sunni and Shia interpretations rapidly took on
theological overtones. In principle, a Sunni approaches
God
directly: there is no clerical hierarchy. Some duly
appointed
religious figures, such as imams, however, exert
considerable
social and political power. Imams usually are men of
importance
in their communities, but they need not have any formal
training.
Committees of socially prominent worshipers usually are
responsible for managing major mosque-owned lands. In most
Arab
countries, the administration of waqfs (religious
endowments) has
come under the influence of the state. Qadis (judges) and
imams
are appointed by the government.

The Muslim year has two religious festivals: Id al
Adha, a
sacrificial festival held on the tenth day of Dhu al
Hijjah, the
twelfth, or pilgrimage, month; and Id al Fitr, the
festival of
breaking the fast, which celebrates the end of Ramadan on
the
first day of Shawwal, the tenth month. To Sunnis these are
the
most important festivals of the year. Each lasts three or
four
days, during which time people put on their best clothes
and
visit, congratulate, and bestow gifts on each other. In
addition,
cemeteries are visited. Id al Fitr is celebrated more
festively
because it marks the end of Ramadan. Celebrations also
take
place, although less extensively, on the Prophet's
birthday,
which falls on the twelfth day of Rabi al Awwal, the third
month.

With regard to legal matters, Sunni Islam has four
orthodox
schools that give different weight in legal opinions to
prescriptions in the Quran, to the hadith, to the
consensus of
legal scholars, to analogy (to similar situations at the
time of
the Prophet), and to reason or opinion. Named for their
founders,
the earliest Muslim legal schools were those of Abd Allah
Malik
ibn Anas (ca. 715-95) and An Numan ibn Thabit Abu Hanifa
(ca.
700-67). The Maliki school was centered in Medina, and the
lawbook of Malik ibn Anas is the earliest surviving Muslim
legal
text, containing a systematic consensus of Medina legal
opinions.
The Hanafi school in Iraq stressed individual opinion in
making
legal decisions. Muhammad ibn Idris ash Shafii (767-820),
a
member of the tribe of Quraysh and a distant relative of
the
Prophet, studied under Malik ibn Anas in Medina. He
followed a
somewhat eclectic legal path, laying down the rules for
analogy
that were later adopted by other legal schools. The last
of the
four major Sunni legal schools, that of Ahmad ibn Muhammad
ibn
Hanbal (780-855), was centered in Baghdad. The Hanbali
school,
which became prominent in Arabia as a result of
Wahhabi (see Glossary)
influence, gave great emphasis to the hadith as
a
source of Muslim law but rejected innovations and
rationalistic
explanations of the Quran and the traditions
(see Wahhabi Islam and the Gulf
, this ch.).